Devin Nunes pro-Trump moves come amid tightened reelection bid

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes has become the face of Republicans' questioning of the FBI in the Russia probe. (JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS)

California Rep. Devin Nunes has staked his name on questioning the FBI's Russia investigation, but his long-term political future could suffer from joining Team Trump.

The Republican has served in Washington for the Fresno area since 2003, though a poll last month sees him in a tighter reelection battle after he has become enmeshed in the swirling Moscow meddling probe.

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Nunes' most recent hour on the stage has come as he has whipped up attention around a memo that he wrote about the FBI's alleged abuse of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, playing up its shock value and promoting its release despite objections from the FBI.

The memo comes as the result of Nunes launching his own mini-investigation within the broader labyrinth of the Russia probe, which he said he was recusing himself from last spring after questions over him sharing investigation information with the White House instead of fellow members of the House Intelligence Committee.

But the future of Nunes, and his role in a Russia probe that may continue to stretch on, has come into question given his newfound prominence's effect on voters back home.

He was leading a reelection bid by only 50% to 45% against a generic Democratic opponent, with a 4.1% margin of error, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released by his potential opponent Andrew Janz last month.

Nunes has won with more than 60% of the vote in his last three elections, including 68% in 2016 buoyed by a victory for President Trump in his district.

It is unclear exactly what is swaying potential voters from Nunes, though Janz, a local deputy prosecutor running as a Democrat, has tethered him to Trump.

Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Janz is challenging Nunes for his seat. (Handout)

Janz put up a billboard in November that showed his opponent as a "good boy" on a child leash held by Trump and in turn by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The January poll came before Nunes' most recent turn as an advocate for the administration's suspicions against the intelligence services, and it is unknown how voters will vote come an all-party primary in June.

Nunes admitted Wednesday night that he had made what he called "minor edits" to the version of the memo he gave to the White House for revision, after Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff said that "material changes" to the document mean that it must be withdrawn.

The bid to "release the memo" has gained some sympathy from transparency advocates such as NSA leaker Edward Snowden and the ACLU, though others see it as a purely political move meant to run interference for the President against the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the man overseeing that investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The memo is reportedly focused on the use of FISA and the dossier on Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, which some Republicans pin much of the Russia investigation on despite other testimony suggesting their probe was already under way when they received it.

Janz criticized Nunes earlier this month for receiving money from conservative billionaire Paul Singer, who originally hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump during the Republican primary.

Singer's Washington Free Beacon website has said that none of the information it commissioned from Fusion was in the dossier, and that Fusion's work was also funded by Democrats.